Post-Tasini Guidelines Sought

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Post-Tasini Guidelines Sought

The National Writers Union and Primedia have begun discussions on the sales and licensing of copyrighted materials from the company's 280 titles, which include Seventeen,Motor Trend and New York.

The negotiations follow the June 25 Tasini v. The New York Times case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that free-lance writers can control whether their works that are sold for print publication can also be reproduced in electronic form.

Primedia hopes to increase revenues through sales of content owned by individual writers.

"We are hopeful that we can set a standard for other media companies to follow," Beverly Chell, vice chairwoman for Primedia, said.

The union and the media conglomerate will focus on development of a system for licensing articles. The union had already created guidelines it hopes will be the basis of an agreement.

"As we have said from the first moments after the decision by the Supreme Court, we want to bargain with media companies so we can reach agreements that position companies to continue to sell copyrighted works, unhindered by legal issues, but with fairness and respect for the role of authors in the business," said Jonathan Tasini, president of the National Writers Union and the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case.

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__Random musings on e-books: __Only ten days after announcing the launch of Random View Books – which will make middle-grade and young-adult books available in e-book form for the first time – Random House announced that it would fold its adult e-book only imprint: AtRandom.

Since its inception over a year ago, AtRandom has gone through several transitions. It was created originally to publish only specific kinds of books – including short fiction and niche-oriented titles that might sell better online than off. That plan was abandoned earlier this year in favor of publishing full-length electronic and print books.

Now those titles will be shifted to the Random House Trade Paperback and Villard imprints.

Closing of AtRandom and launching the children's e-book program lays out a clear plan to make e-books part of already established imprints. The 17 Random View Books titles – all geared to middle-grade and young -adult audiences – will cost $3.99 and are available in all major formats.

"We think the books will fare better if they are part of an existing brand," said Tom Perry, director of publicity for Random. "The e-book market was not as buoyant as we would have hoped."

This slow start to what many publishers hoped would be a fast launch of a new format should not necessarily be looked at as failure as much as an idea that is still ahead of its time.

While e-books are here, the conditions necessary to make them a large success are still missing. Among them, according to Jack Romanos, president and COO of Simon & Schuster: portability, accessibility, attractive price and quality.

Speaking at the National Institute of Standards and Technology e-book conference in Washington, Romanos said these preconditions have not yet been met. "The revolution was not a revolution, but is an evolution," he said, "The industry is under pressure to put in place elements to make an e-book work."

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__Light reading: __Paper pioneer E Ink last week unveiled a prototype e-reader that will be only one centimeter thick, offer a 7-inch diagonal screen, run on two AA batteries and weigh only nine ounces. The price will be $300, and it should be available in 2003.

The prototype was developed in conjunction with Japanese firm Toppan Printing, an E Ink partner. The high-resolution black and white screen (with four shades of gray) features E Ink's proprietary technology based on microcapsules printed onto a sheet of plastic film.

Publisher's Lunch editor Michael Cader said it came closer "than anything you've seen before to the brightness, contrast and clarity of paper."

Russ Wilcox, E Ink's vice president and general manager, said the device will sync with a user's desktop PC via either USB or parallel port.

Until now, no proprietary reading device has successfully captured the market. But this one will be thinner and lighter, and its plastic screen makes it more durable than other LCD-based devices with glass screens.

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__Authors online: __Weeklong online discussions and hour-long chats between authors and readers are becoming well-attended events – and often are as important for authors as live book store events.

Margot Livesey is participating in a weeklong discussion at Readerville.com. Her visit will be followed by National Book Critics Circle Award winner, Jim Crace (week of Nov. 26) and best-selling author Tracy Chevalier (week of Dec. 10).

"We launched the Readerville Events series in the summer of 2000 with Jim Crace, who has been on our best-seller list ever since," said proprietor Karen Templer. "Jim charmed the socks off everyone, and we've never quite gotten over it."

At PreviewPort.com this week, authors Rick Bragg, Michael Pollan and Naomi Wolf will host hour-long online discussions in collaboration with the Miami Book Fair.

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__Parlez-vous Pocket PC? __Learn a new language on your Pocket PC? Assimil and Mobipocket have created a new language learning tool: The multimedia teach-yourself courses offer the equivalent of a 500-page textbook combined with MP3 audio recordings.

An audio-comparison function enables you to record your own pronunciation and then play it back and compare it to the prerecorded teacher's version.

M.J. Rose is the author of two novels and a nonfiction book about e-publishing.